Arab Heritage Month kicks off with cultural celebration at Central Library in Calgary

Arab Heritage Month kicked off Saturday at Calgary's Central Library

Saturday at the Central Library, Calgarians celebrated Arab arts and culture in a special event that kicked off Arab Heritage Month.

Bassem Hafez, the executive director of the Calgary Arab Arts and Culture Society, explained there’s a whole lot more to Arab culture than many people realize.

“Arabs are usually portrayed as one thing,” Hafez said. “Did you know they have 23 countries? Did you know they don’t speak the same language?

“Even religions,” he said. “This (region) is the birthplace of different monotheist religions. There are a variety of Arabs with different religious denominations so we wanted to celebrate the pride of being an Arab, number one.

“Number two, (we want to) help fellow Canadians to learn and know Arab culture more and more -- and try to decipher the differences (between different Arab cultures).”

Saturday’s event offered a sampling of the rich range of cultural offerings that will continue through April.

“Tonight we are having an amazing program,” Hafez said. “We are having a Palestinian storyteller, playing the role of an Assyrian 17th century silk trader, followed by a Moroccan dancer.

“We have Yemeni and Sudanese standup comedians, who are already on Netflix,” he added. “We are talking about people who are already established.”

“We are having amazing food from The Taste of Yemen.

“We are having a Lebanese Oud player, it’s a musical instrument, and violinist, we have dances, we have spoken words and even our emcee tonight, she is a professor and she is giving us amazing poetry of Mahmoud Darwish, an established Palestinian poet.”

Hafez said events are planned for every corner of Calgary throughout April.

“This year, we are having it month-long and city-wide,” he said, “which means we are having six arts exhibitions – contracting 40 Arab and non-Arab artists.

“Plus we are having a collaboration on the 28th with the Calgary Society of Independent Filmmakers to screen Arab films.”

To learn more about the Calgary Arab Arts & Culture Society, please visit here.

With files from CTV’s Darren Wright